IAAF Women's Pole Vault Article
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:00 pm
http://www.iaaf.org/GLE08/news/newsid=45790.html
Tuesday, 08 July 2008
"They fly through the air with the greatest of ease" - ÅF Golden League
Doing what she does best: Yelena Isinbayeva winning the women's pole vault (Getty Images)
Related News
It’s a song, it’s a drama… no, we are not about to start playing the famous parlour game, Charades! Athletics, like all sport and entertainment can at times be described in both derogatory and glowing terms as ‘a Circus’. But in pure feats of athleticism however it is the Pole Vault which comes closest to what Barnum and Bailey would have presented in their famous three rings.
Track and Field’s high wire act sees its best exponents "fly through the air with the greatest of ease", the men and women achieving the equivalent of the trapeze’s triple summersault when they respectively clear bars resting on uprights at heights of 6 and 5 metres.
There are 14 men who have so far successfully scaled 6m outdoors, but in the, albeit, much younger history of the women’s division there remains only one athlete who has cleared 5 metres, Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia.
Russia’s reigning World, Olympic and European champion, and multiple World record holder is in many respects the pioneer of the event, the first woman to bring the discipline to the outskirts of the achievements of the best male performers. Much as the flying trapeze was invented by the French acrobat Jules Léotard, so Isinbayeva has defined what it is to be a female pole vaulter.
But the 4.92m Area record by Jenn Stuczynski at the US Trials on Sunday 6 July has for the second time this year (4.90m Area record on 18 May) made us seriously question the peerless position of the World record holder. Isinbayeva’s global mark stands at 5.01m.
Isinbayeva starts her outdoor season at the ÅF Golden League meeting in Rome, Italy on Friday 11 July 2008. The 26-year-old Russian, who retained the World Indoor title in Valencia on 8 March but has not competed since, has been training in the Italian town of Formia at the IAAF World Pole Vault Centre.
In April she confirmed that in Formia “I have found the best conditions for training.”
“This year is very important for me and I hope it will be an unforgettable year…. I will not compete too much this summer. I want to peak my form for Beijing.”
While Stuczynski is not down to compete in Rome so soon after the US Trials, Isinbayeva’s performance at the ‘28th Golden Gala Kinder+Sport’ will come under intense scrutiny given the American’s advancement last weekend.
Last year when a back injury to Stuczynski prevented her much awaited duel with Isinbayeva from taking place in Rome, the American at the time had a best of 4.88. The Russian was able to bask in the confidence of 13 higher competitions to her own career credit but now the margin has shrunk to just five better meets than Stuczynski.
In the psychological battle, ahead of Beijing, for all intents and purposes Stuczynski might as well be on the runway on Friday night because Isinbayeva has got to mount an immediate counter offensive in Rome’s Olympic stadium considering that in the last two outdoor seasons her best height has been 4.91m.
But anyone who is ready to bury the bubbly, larger than life character and athletic legend that is Isinbayeva, does so prematurely.
This winter Isinbayeva raised her World Indoor record to 4.95m, her best performance since her 5.01m outdoor World mark on 12 August 2005.
Among those challenging the World and Olympic champion in Rome will be compatriot and former World record holder Svetlana Feofanova (4.88m PB), South American Area record holder Fabiano Murer (4.80m PB), and the Poles, Anna Rogowska (4.83m PB) and Monica Pyrek (4.82m PB).
Chris Turner for the IAAF
Tuesday, 08 July 2008
"They fly through the air with the greatest of ease" - ÅF Golden League
Doing what she does best: Yelena Isinbayeva winning the women's pole vault (Getty Images)
Related News
It’s a song, it’s a drama… no, we are not about to start playing the famous parlour game, Charades! Athletics, like all sport and entertainment can at times be described in both derogatory and glowing terms as ‘a Circus’. But in pure feats of athleticism however it is the Pole Vault which comes closest to what Barnum and Bailey would have presented in their famous three rings.
Track and Field’s high wire act sees its best exponents "fly through the air with the greatest of ease", the men and women achieving the equivalent of the trapeze’s triple summersault when they respectively clear bars resting on uprights at heights of 6 and 5 metres.
There are 14 men who have so far successfully scaled 6m outdoors, but in the, albeit, much younger history of the women’s division there remains only one athlete who has cleared 5 metres, Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia.
Russia’s reigning World, Olympic and European champion, and multiple World record holder is in many respects the pioneer of the event, the first woman to bring the discipline to the outskirts of the achievements of the best male performers. Much as the flying trapeze was invented by the French acrobat Jules Léotard, so Isinbayeva has defined what it is to be a female pole vaulter.
But the 4.92m Area record by Jenn Stuczynski at the US Trials on Sunday 6 July has for the second time this year (4.90m Area record on 18 May) made us seriously question the peerless position of the World record holder. Isinbayeva’s global mark stands at 5.01m.
Isinbayeva starts her outdoor season at the ÅF Golden League meeting in Rome, Italy on Friday 11 July 2008. The 26-year-old Russian, who retained the World Indoor title in Valencia on 8 March but has not competed since, has been training in the Italian town of Formia at the IAAF World Pole Vault Centre.
In April she confirmed that in Formia “I have found the best conditions for training.”
“This year is very important for me and I hope it will be an unforgettable year…. I will not compete too much this summer. I want to peak my form for Beijing.”
While Stuczynski is not down to compete in Rome so soon after the US Trials, Isinbayeva’s performance at the ‘28th Golden Gala Kinder+Sport’ will come under intense scrutiny given the American’s advancement last weekend.
Last year when a back injury to Stuczynski prevented her much awaited duel with Isinbayeva from taking place in Rome, the American at the time had a best of 4.88. The Russian was able to bask in the confidence of 13 higher competitions to her own career credit but now the margin has shrunk to just five better meets than Stuczynski.
In the psychological battle, ahead of Beijing, for all intents and purposes Stuczynski might as well be on the runway on Friday night because Isinbayeva has got to mount an immediate counter offensive in Rome’s Olympic stadium considering that in the last two outdoor seasons her best height has been 4.91m.
But anyone who is ready to bury the bubbly, larger than life character and athletic legend that is Isinbayeva, does so prematurely.
This winter Isinbayeva raised her World Indoor record to 4.95m, her best performance since her 5.01m outdoor World mark on 12 August 2005.
Among those challenging the World and Olympic champion in Rome will be compatriot and former World record holder Svetlana Feofanova (4.88m PB), South American Area record holder Fabiano Murer (4.80m PB), and the Poles, Anna Rogowska (4.83m PB) and Monica Pyrek (4.82m PB).
Chris Turner for the IAAF